Streaming + Download

£2GBP or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

Limited edition CD housed in printed metal tin. One-off print run not to be repeated.
Includes unlimited streaming of New Earth
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

edition of 100

£6GBPor more

about

Robin Jax (RobinPlaysChords) and Amber Bird (Varnish) are travellers from similar universes. Both are on the Autism spectrum. Both are lovers of music and fighters of demons. They find meaning in science fiction and the warped edges of a reality that seems excessive to their alien minds. It's no wonder that their sound has a hint of the cosmic, and their lyrics encode the universal as lived by the extraterrestrial.

On "New Earth", their debut single as The Companions, Robin and Amber come in peace, and in harmony. After the cleansing hum of "Blaidd Drwg", arpeggios initially gleam like stars before the title track is engulfed in a fiery supernova of electric guitars and clanking percussion. The Companions sing of rebirth and existence, but there is a price to pay - for all of the new, everything returns to "the same ground you're buried in/the same gravity that pulled you down", and then back to the stars from whence it came.

"New Earth" might suggest that The Companions are avowed melancholists, set apart on this plane of existence, but closer "(parentheses)" offers a warmer outlook. Organ swells move at a glacial pace as a realisation of a very human feeling is made - "Your love is a curve/That rewrites my history/Like I've always known you", a declaration that covers an ocean, a planet, a universe. Maybe that is only a fleeting experience, as more electric guitar scorches the remains of what came before, but its intensity leaves a permanent mark.

As the first knowingly transatlantic Autistic duo, The Companions have put a marker down with "New Earth". This recording tells us of a wonderful, contradictory world that they have navigated together and alone simultaneously. Where they go from here, and the potential for others to follow, is something we should all watch very keenly.

credits

released November 30, 2018

All songs by Robin Jax and Amber Bird

Recorded at Hackney Road Studios in London, LAMP in Leamington Spa, Tiergarten Records in Long Itchington (all United Kingdom) and IQ Studios, Seattle, United States

Engineered by Jack Gilbert, Tim Ellis and The Companions

Produced by Jack Gilbert and The Companions

Mixed by Jack Gilbert at Hackney Road Studios in London, United Kingdom

Mastered by Angus Wallace at Far Heath Studios in Northampton, United Kingdom

license

all rights reserved

tags

Tags

about

The CompanionsSeattle, Washington

Transatlantic Autistic duo The Companions (Robin Jax of RobinPlaysChords and Amber Bird of Varnish) have slipped time and
space to build a signal fire of song that brings light to the darkest corners. They find meaning in science fiction and the warped edges of a reality that feels excessive to their alien minds. Slowcore-inspired with a cosmic edge, the universal as lived by the extraterrestrial....more

contact / help

All the motions that we are going through
On this swinging bulb of violent light
No other soul can sleep so easily at night
The waking up is better than the coming to

New skin
New earth

The soft spot of the harder truth
The worlds fall apart in a moment
Critical mass is ever closer
The light pooling in on us and over

New skin
New sounds
Same ground you're buried in
Same gravity that pulled you down

The manual override
Will only work when you die inside
But there is wonder beyond the spheres
There is joy here
There lies potential
There is memory aplenty for you when I am gone
Gone and said goodbye

To new skin
New sounds
Same ground you're buried in
Same gravity that pulled you down

Same ground you're buried in
Same gravity that pulled you down
Same ground you're buried in

Track Name: (parentheses)

i never believed in love at first sight
i only believed in you that first night
i never believed in "nobody else"
i only believe you're all that i've felt

i never believed truth was a picture
i only believe photographs fit you
i never believed i could fall deeper
i only believe you're endless ether

your love is a curve
that rewrites my history
like i've always known you
and you've never missed me
like we are parentheses
holding the answer
and everything outside us
just doesn't matter

i never believed in someone who'd stay
i only believe you don't slip away
i never believed i'd let the doubts go
i only believe that you're all i know